82 RAMBLES AND REVERIES. 



" By the way," said Baxter, " what made you take 

 up with such a curious subject as geology? It 

 seems to me to consist mainly of hard names and 

 dry details ; and, so far as I can judge, it doesn't 

 help one much in theology." 



" Your question would take a deal of answering," 

 I replied. " Geology has a great deal to do with 

 theology ; but if it had not, a preacher ought by 

 no means to limit his studies to what is technically 

 called theology. If he does, he will very likely 

 become a Dr. Dryasdust. I began to read geological 

 books long before I took to preaching, and my 

 early love has never faded. When a boy at 

 school I received Dr. Harris's Pre- Adamite Earth 

 for a prize, and I was so fascinated with its 

 marvellous stories of old-world life that the science 

 has kept hold of my imagination ever since. Your 

 ideas about it, I know, are very prevalent. I 

 remember a passage in Wordsworth's Excursion 

 which rather humorously describes the geologist : 



' You may trace him oft 

 By scars which his activity has left 

 Beside our roads and pathways 

 He who with pocket hammer smites the edge 

 Of every luckless rock or stone that stands 

 Before his sight by weather stains disguised, 

 Or crusted .o'er with vegetation thin, 

 Nature's first growth, detaching by the stroke 

 A chip or splinter to resolve his doubts ; 

 And with that ready answer satisfied, 

 Doth to the substance give some barbarous name ; 

 Then hurries on, or from the fragment picks 

 His specimen.' 



